COSAC's only gas chromatogram taken on comet 67P/Churyumov‐Gerasimenko

Creators: Leseigneur, Guillaume; Bredehöft, Jan; Gautier, Thomas; Giri, Chaitanya; Krüger, Harald; Macdermott, Alexandra; Meierhenrich, Uwe; Munoz Caro, Guillermo; Raulin, François; Steele, Andrew; Szopa, Cyril; Thiemann, Wolfram; Ulamec, Stephan; Goesmann, Fred

Others:: Institut de Chimie de Nice (ICN) ; Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS) ; COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA); Universität Bremen; PLANETO - LATMOS ; Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Earth-Life Science Institute [Tokyo] (ELSI) ; Tokyo Institute of Technology [Tokyo] (TITECH); Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (MPS) ; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft; University of Houston [Clear Lake]; Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid] (CAB) ; Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA)-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC); Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12); Carnegie Institution for Science; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [Bonn] (DLR); G.L and U.M acknowledge the financial support of the ANR (ANR-15-IDEX-01 and ANR-18-CE29-0004). T.G. acknowledges the financial support from the Programme National de Planétologie (PNP) of CNRS/INSU co-funded by CNES and of the ANR (ANR-20-CE49-0004-01). G.M.M.C. acknowledges the Spanish MICINN under project PID2020-118974GB−C21 (AEI/FEDER, UE) and the Unidad de Excelencia 'María de Maeztu' MDM-2017-0737 – Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC).; ANR-18-CE29-0004,AAAs,L'Asymétrie des Acides Aminés(2018); ANR-15-IDEX-0001,UCA JEDI,Idex UCA JEDI(2015); ANR-20-CE49-0004,TOMTA,Sur la piste de la matière organique dans l'atmosphère de Titan(2020)

Description

The Philae lander of the Rosetta space mission made a non-nominal landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014. Shortly after, using the limited power available from Philae's batteries, the COSAC instrument performed a single 18- minutes gas chromatogram, which has remained unpublished until now due to the lack of identifiable elution. We show that despite the unsuccessful drilling of the comet and deposition of surface material in the SD2 ovens, the measurements from the COSAC instrument were executed nominally. We describe an automated search for extremely small deviations from noise and discuss the possibility of a signal from ethylene glycol at m/z 31. Arguments for and against this detection are listed, but the results remain inconclusive. Still, the successful operations of an analytical chemistry laboratory on a cometary nucleus gives great hope for the future of space exploration.

Abstract

International audience

COSAC's only gas chromatogram taken on comet 67P/Churyumov‐Gerasimenko

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